Skyrim Dawnguard DLC is longer than Dishonored

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim's upcoming expansion, Dawnguard, is going to be longer than Dishonored, a full-length AAA title set to release later this year. You can bet it won't be nearly as expensive either.

"It'll take between 10 and 20 hours to beat," Skyrim lead artist Matt Carofano told Game Front. "It's about as long as a faction line."

“Dawnguardwill be significantly bigger than any Fallout DLC,” Carofano added. “We wanted to do something more in depth than that. It’s not as big as Shivering Isles, but there’s still a lot of content there.”

Apparently it's about as much content as Dishonored, currently in development by Arkane Studios, will offer. How long will Dishonored take you to beat? According to a Bethesda Q&A it will take players about "12 or 14 hours" to complete. To be fair, they did add that "explorers who eavesdrop a lot will take twice as long."

Now I don't know how much Bethesda plans on charging for Dawnguard, but you can bet it won't be $60 which is likely what Dishonored will release for. I think this shows, more than anything, is just how much we need some form of tiered pricing model for gaming. Why pay full price for a new title, which may suck, when you can get the same gameplay time out of a game you already own and love?

Granted, I understand there are added development costs for a brand new IP. I doubt it costs Bethesda nearly as much to create additional Skyrim content as it does to create a fresh, new game, but from a consumer standpoint which would you rather purchase? Additional content for a game that you already love that will likely be cheap, or a game that you have no idea how it will play that will probably cost three times as much? You're getting nearly the same amount of content either way, but for two drastically different prices.

By the way, the $60 doesn't even include the planned DLC that Bethesda and Arcane likely have for Dishonored.